Black Canyon
Apr 22, 2007
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Black Canyon
- Region: Eastern Washington -- Yakima
- Agency: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Avg Rating: 4.40
My first trip up the Umtanum road and now I am hooked. I was accompanied by Ms. Allison Woods and my long time friend Mary K.
Umtanum Road is in excellent condition and is drivable by the average car all the way across from Ellensburg to Selah. Flowers are blooming, turkey vultures are lurking and bluebird boxes are occupied. After the 22.3 miles from E-burg we turned off of Wenas onto a sedan unfriendly road (no mud but lots of bumps). After going through the elk gate we parked at the berm and headed up and old road. Balsam Root was gigantic as was the ""chocolate tip"" desert parsley. The roads holds many interesting sights including skeletons, feathers, all sorts of scat, volcanic rocks, petrified wood and numerous flowers to identify. Raptors and ravens were soaring and croaking along with an odd meowing bird of some sort.
After about a mile you come to a beautiful stand of cottonwoods and birches (or are they aspens?) and then an old cabin worthy of exploring. The road then becomes ""berm central"" and you enter ORV territory. We took the road to the right at an intersection and headed up into ponderosa country and even more flowers. Blue bells, yellow bell, grass widows, spring beauty, sagebrush violets (scented), and white desert parsley were everywhere. The ORV's were around but not too bad for a Sunday. We watched a storm move across to the south as we ate lunch in perfect sunny spring weather on our ridge.
It was a lovely day, the early flowers are peaking and the lupine is just starting for form buds. No ticks, snakes or mosquitoes yet.
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